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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28824189">glass full of cherry pits</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwaixumi/pseuds/iwaixumi'>iwaixumi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Comfort and Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, fruit cutting as a love language, honest to god tooth-rotting fluff, the inherent sensuality of cutting fruit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:15:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,390</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28824189</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwaixumi/pseuds/iwaixumi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Daichi's love for Shinsuke, as described in a series of paradoxes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kita Shinsuke/Sawamura Daichi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Kita Ship Week 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>glass full of cherry pits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>inspired to write for kita ship week 2021 by <a href="http://twitter.com/kitsumushoyo">jade</a>, my very nice beta for this piece, who wrote a gorgeous and heartwarming <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28796970">atsukita fic</a> for this week that you should totally read !</p><p>day 2: domestic + little things<br/>bonus: long distance</p><p>the end of part three and all of part four of this were heavily inspired by the frankie valli &amp; the four seasons song can't take my eyes off you, so if you'd like to give it a listen while reading that part to enhance the vibes i'll link it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcJm1pOswfM">here</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><b> <em>The paradox of simplicity is that </em> </b> <b> <em><br/>
</em> </b> <b> <em>making things simpler is hard work.</em> </b></p><p><b> <em><br/>
</em> </b>The world Daichi lives in is one of paradoxes; things that should negate each other coexist comfortably. The nature of their peaceful coexistence is itself a paradox of the greatest kind. </p><p><br/>
<em> Paradox 1: Point C traveling on a line from Point A to Point B by advancing half the distance at a time will never reach its destination. </em>
</p><p>Daichi and Shinsuke’s story is not a love story for the ages. They met in high school during a volleyball game for a grand total of eighty-three minutes; of which only twenty-nine minutes were spent on court at the same time. </p><p>The immediate connection they felt was a testament to their abilities as captains to read the court for imposing threats. The respective footholds they provided their teammates, raising them to impossible heights as pillars of support, unbreakable and reliable against even the worst of odds, provided the biggest threat. </p><p>At first glance, their weapons were identical. </p><p>Upon a second glance, the paths they carved out for their teams clearly diverged from the start, leading them in parallel directions up the mountain; never quite meeting, but never straying far, either. </p><p>And when Daichi made the summit, Shinsuke could see his strong back from just a few meters behind; the sun shining on him like a beacon, posture as straight as his own but without the rigidity.</p><p>Like with almost all meetings, theirs was locked to a singular moment. While Shinsuke’s volleyball career ended, Daichi’s had a few more momentous days left; and while Shinsuke stayed home to study agriculture and buy a nice plot of land, Daichi went to university and took an extra year to train for a future in law enforcement. </p><p>Coming together again took another five years after that fateful day in high school, requiring the fates to stack tediously in their favor for a one-in-a-million chance few others get. These fates came in the forms of: a court halfway between Miyagi and Hyogo, former teammates loud and charming enough to coax them out of their routines, and free schedules for the next day that allowed them to go out for drinks after.</p><p>What happened after is largely unimportant. It took two more years for Daichi and Shinsuke to give a name to the fondness they feel for one another, although the name was not necessary since nothing about the way they existed changed thereafter.</p><p>They try to see each other once a month. They take turns, as their schedule allows, and split the train fare. Sometimes, when Shinsuke makes personal trips to work out contracts and deliver rice to his former kohai, Daichi meets him there with a comfortable smile and rosy cheeks. Those months when they see each other a second time with only a couple of weeks in between make them feel spoiled rotten. </p><p>Shinsuke has not asked Daichi to put in a transfer and move in with him. </p><p>Daichi hasn’t offered, either. </p><p>Mathematically speaking, meeting in a series of halfway points ensures that two points never converge. But if the infinite space between them feels this warm, comfortable, and simple, is there a need for convergence? </p><p>They are lines stretching forever in both directions, parallel to one another; but so close that they begin to think that, maybe, infinity doesn’t actually mean that much.</p><p><br/>
<em>Paradox 2:</em> <em> The size and weight of a singular grain of rice is negligible, but when many grains are combined, it becomes enough to feed hundreds - in this way, many of nothing can become something. </em></p><p>Shinsuke has a strong grasp of this paradox, since it informs much of what he considers his way of life. Small things, when done properly and with care, make up a person. </p><p>Daichi also has a strong grasp of this paradox, since it informs much of what he considers his future. Small things, when done properly and with care, build a relationship.</p><p>During the days they spend apart, these small things take many forms.</p><p>It takes the form of perfectly timed phone calls when Daichi is on break eating a quickly put-together bento and Shinsuke is making his own so they can eat lunch together every day.</p><p>It takes the form of red chrysanthemums, and, one time, a small bouquet of red and pink asters, delivered to the front desk of Daichi’s office. </p><p>And during the much sweeter days they spend together, it takes forms so tender it makes their bones weak. </p><p>Things as small as Shinsuke making Daichi breakfast in the mornings because he wakes up earlier; the two of them stumbling around each other in something resembling a dance in their kitchens - both far too small for them to be cooking together, but Daichi thinks it’s more fun to be in the kitchen when he can “accidentally” brush by Shinsuke and make him blush; Daichi spending a day with Shinsuke in the fields, egging on a competition neither of them care much about because he likes to see the playful spark in Shinsuke’s eyes. </p><p>As heartwarming and warm as these small nothings are, they build to create an impossibly large something. For Daichi, there is nothing that exemplifies the importance of nothings more than the simple act of cutting fruit. </p><p>When he spends time down South at Shin’s farm, he makes an effort to buy Shinsuke groceries on his first day there. At the market, he buys fresh, whole melons and cherries and stops at a fruit stand off the side of the road on his way back for pears, loquats, or kiwis - depending on the season, he might get some chestnuts as well. </p><p>He hums in the bright and small kitchen as he cuts the melons in halves, then halves again, and uses a spoon to scoop out the seeds before removing the skin and cubing it. When it’s warm outside, he opens the windows, cracks the door leading to the back porch, and listens to the sounds of the large, sweeping cuts Shinsuke makes as he harvests and tends to his field, the hose and drain system, and a handful of other machines Shinsuke uses to manage the land by himself. </p><p>Shinsuke, ever the traditionalist, has a vintage radio in his kitchen that he has hooked up to a record player so he can listen to old music he finds at garage sales and antique stores while he cooks and cleans. Sometimes Daichi plays a record or two as he prepares the fruit, keeping the volume high enough to fill the room but low enough that he can still hear Shin’s movements outside.</p><p>After years of practice, Daichi has gotten to a point where he can cut the skin off a melon without sacrificing a lot of the fruit itself. The curve of the fruit contradicting against the flat blade in his hand is a feeling he knows well and moves around with ease. Juices drip down his fingers and onto the palms of his hands, and he licks the nectar off before moving on.</p><p>He doesn’t remove the pits or stems from the cherries he buys because Shin says it doesn’t feel right to eat a cherry without spitting out the pit into a glass they share. </p><p>Handling kiwis is about having gentle hands and a sharp knife. Scooping the fruit out of the center is an art, and cutting the half-spheres into thin sheets and slicing them in half again is meditative. </p><p>The tiny seeds within a kiwi are so small it is impossible to dig them out of the fruit. And yet, these weightless, tasteless seeds accumulate and turn into the very act of love itself.</p><p><br/>
<em>Paradox 3:</em> <em> If an audience already knows the story, suspense is not possible. </em></p><p>On afternoons like this, Daichi will be sure to slice, skin, and scoop out the seeds of every fruit he buys before Shin has come inside for lunch. Of course, while he takes care of the melons and cherries and pears, he has lunch already prepared, warming on the stove under a beeswax-coated towel. </p><p>When Shinsuke comes inside, muddy boots already taken off and sitting on the back porch, clothes and calloused hands caked in dirt, forehead glistening with beads of sweat, he is welcomed by a certain warmth in his kitchen that has only ever been provided by another. </p><p>One of his newer records is spinning, sunlight is beaming in through the open windows, and fresh fruit waits for him in a bowl on the counter. An empty glass sits next to the bowl, promising the brushing of fingertips as the glass is passed back and forth and steadily filled with cherry pits. </p><p>Daichi stands on the other side of the counter, leaning on his elbows, and sees the world in front of him in sepia tones. </p><p>After rolling up his muddy sleeves and meticulously washing his hands in the sink, tediously scrubbing the dirt out from under his nails and the ridges of his palms, Shinsuke returns to stand on the opposite side of the counter as Daichi. </p><p>Shinsuke pops a cherry in his mouth. Daichi’s smile is so affectionate and fond, Shinsuke blossoms in the face of it. </p><p>And so they eat together; another one of the small things they make sure to do for each other every day, even when they are apart. </p><p>The actual food, of course, does not go forgotten, but the main course is not the dish prepared over the stove. Lunch itself is an afterthought, only coming after the record is flipped and the glass is full of cherry pits. </p><p>Shinsuke demonstrates that he can tie a cherry stem with his tongue. Daichi, flustered even though he’s known for many years now that Shin could do this, switches his attention to the pears near the bottom of the bowl. </p><p>Shinsuke laughs and Daichi knows he would give up everything if he could make Shin laugh like that every day for the rest of their lives.</p><p>When the bowl is empty and their hearts are full of kiwi seeds, the song changes. Daichi notices the way Shin’s eyes gleam in almost trained response as if to communicate something he doesn’t even know he wants. </p><p>Daichi hums along to the beginning, finding that it’s an older American song his mother probably enjoyed and indulged in a handful of times while he was growing up. He collects their empty bowls and brings them to the sink to wash while Shinsuke continues swaying his head to the upbeat music with a peaceful expression, hands resting on either side of the cherry pit glass. </p><p>Daichi could watch Shin forever and never grow bored. </p><p>When hands find a place on his hips from behind and a body grows flush to his, Daichi swears he melts. With a smile, he finishes the dishes and stays there for just a moment, appreciating the warmth of Shin’s cheek pressed against his shoulder, reverberating Daichi’s own humming back onto his skin. </p><p>And even though this is a story told a thousand times, a moment shared between thousands of couples across time and the Earth as they know it and told every which way, they both feel the suspense that exists in the seconds before a decision is made. </p><p><br/>
<em>Paradox 4: Two points that converge cannot exist as separate entities. </em>
</p><p>It begins with Daichi’s soft touch as he turns, guiding Shinsuke’s hands to wrap around his neck, applying soft pressure to Daichi’s broad shoulders where Shinsuke’s forearms rest. Daichi wraps his arms around Shin’s back, pressing his palms into the strong muscles just below his shoulders. </p><p>It is easy for Shinsuke to pull him into a kiss since they are the same height. Daichi smiles his way through it and pulls Shinsuke into an odd dance of sorts - exaggerated swaying coming from his hips and shoulders to match the quick tempo of the music.</p><p>Shinsuke laughs at the pull and tug of his body and allows himself to flow with Daichi’s messy but cute half-dancing.</p><p>The song picks up its pace and what started as exaggerated swaying and tilting and jostling to make Shin laugh has turned into something much larger as they push and pull and shift the weight on their feet to meet the song where it has strung them along. </p><p>Daichi does not know the words, but he is singing loudly anyway because he has long since learned that embarrassing himself isn’t all that bad if it makes Shin look at him like he’s the only man on Earth. </p><p>It is easy to get lost in the moment, with the sounds of birds coming from open windows, a stomach full of fruit, and Daichi singing and grabbing Shinsuke’s hands and pulling him every which way as the music fills his remaining senses. </p><p>Shinsuke loses himself in the moment, lets go, and returns a similar energy as he continues to follow Daichi’s lead. </p><p>Together, they bounce their joined hands to emphasize the words they sing and pull each other into childish moves that aren’t actually real dance moves, so much as they are poses with shifting weight and turns one would make to make themselves completely vulnerable to another. </p><p>Open arms, wide feet, hands never leaving each other; faces leaning in with eyes and mouths so open it’s easy to miss the way their chests point towards each other like compasses showing the way home.</p><p>
  <span>Daichi and Shinsuke do small things for each other each day to make something out of nothing; creating the simple life they have is not hard when the work itself is split for them to meet halfway in these little pieces. Even when love stories are known deep within their hearts, they themselves are not the same people as when they first heard them, giving every encounter with them new power to grip their hearts in suspense. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Impossibly, against all the laws of mathematics and physics they learned in school, their two bodies running parallel to one another towards the same horizon are destined to converge eventually. This is because love is not theoretical, and home is not a point on a two-dimensional plane. </span>
</p><p><b><br/>
<em>The paradox of paradoxes is that</em> </b> <b> <em><br/>
</em> </b> <b> <em>they shouldn’t exist; the nature of things</em> </b> <b> <em><br/>
</em> </b> <b> <em>that exist simultaneous but shouldn’t</em> </b> <b></b><br/>
<b> <em>is that they somehow find a way to work</em> </b> <b> <em><br/>
</em> </b> <b></b> <strong><em>even without explanation.</em></strong></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i really wrote this on a whim and uploaded it in a whirlwind but i hope you enjoyed it! kudos and comments are always appreciated &lt;3</p><p>(my <a href="https://twitter.com/bokutoknits">twitter</a>)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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